This application relates to computer hard disk drives and, more particularly, to load beam assemblies for such drives. The invention further relates to improvements in the base or mounting plate portion of load beam assemblies, i.e. improvements in the mounting plates which define the base. The invention modifies such base mounting plates to enable the use of substitute load beams, including shorter and more rigid load beams in existing suspensions designed for other, longer load beams, with a gain in performance and a saving in design and manufacturing cost. These modified bases may be used in newly designed suspensions also.
The modifed mounting plate bases further enable the individuated mounting of multiple load beams onto single actuators using ordinary mounting techniques, such as swaging, but with the new result of ready demountability of one load beam without disruption of the mounting of the other. This feature of the invention allows the replacement of just one of a pair of load beams on a common actuator, where only one is defective, for substantial savings in manufacturing time, yields and costs.
Computer hard drives include disks and sliders, the sliders being supported on suspensions to fly closely above the disk surface in precisely positioned read/write relation. The positioning of the slider, assuming a constant actuator, is determined by the load beam assembly, this assembly comprising the load beam, the flexure and the slider, and the mounting base which mounts the other load beam components to the actuator. Modification of the mounting plate in accordance with the teaching of this invention enables the separate mounting of load beams to a common actuator and the cantilever suspension of a load beam from a mounting plate extending beyond the actuator. In the latter case, a relatively shorter and stiffer load beam can be combined with a cantilevered mounting plate as a base, and substitute for a longer, more flexible load beam previously used in a given suspension. This gives a gain in performance while maintaining the precise positioning of the slider despite the use of a shorter load beam. The shorter load beam would not ordinarily extend sufficiently to permit the required positioning when substituted for the standard longer load beam.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide the means to mount a load beam assembly to an actuator for individual dismounting, whether or not cantilevered, and in certain cases to be supported from beyond the actuator so as to have a relatively shorter load beam suffice for a longer with increase in stiffness and no modification of the overall suspension beyond changes in the load beam and its mounting. It is another object to provide simple mechanical modification of the base mounting plate to enable individual demounting and make up for the change in load beam dimensions. It is another object to provide a suspension design modified solely at the mounting plate-load beam interconnection so that the suspension maintains its original positioning characteristic. A still further object is to provide novel mounting plates for load beams.
These and other objects of the invention to become apparent hereinafter are realized in a disk drive suspension mounting plate for mounting a load beam to an actuator in operative association with a disk, the actuator defining a mounting hole, the mounting plate defining a first mounting means registerable with the actuator mounting hole and cooperating therewith to mount the mounting plate to the actuator, the mounting means plate defining second mounting means cooperating with the load beam to mount the load beam on the mounting plate as the sole support of the load beam in its said operative association. The actuator can further define a second mounting hole longitudinally spaced from the first mounting hole, the mounting plate mounting means being a first mounting means and comprising an aperture having a wall deflectable into engagement selectively with the first or second actuator mounting hole to mount the mounting plate to the actuator for sole supporting of the load beam correspondingly from the actuator first or second mounting hole. Additionally, the mounting plate can have a portion cantilevered from the actuator, the load beam being supported from that portion.
Accordingly, in one aspect, the invention provides a disk drive suspension comprising an actuator having first and second load beams mounted thereto for operative association with a disk, the actuator defining first and second load beam mounting holes extending vertically in a common plane and spaced along the longitudinal axis of the actuator, the first load beam being mounted to the actuator at the first mounting hole, the second load beam being mounted to the actuator at the second mounting hole, the first and second load beams lying in the common vertical plane, whereby the first and second load beams are individually separable from the actuator for demounting of one load beam without disturbing the mounting of the other.
In this and like embodiments, there is also included a first load beam mounting plate mounting the first load beam to the actuator at the first mounting hole, a second load beam mounting plate mounting the second load beam to the actuator at the second mounting hole, and the first and second load beam mounting plates lie substantially parallel to each other in the common vertical plane. Typically, the actuator has an end bracketed by the first and second load beams, first and second load beam mounting plates being of different lengths to extend respectively to the first and second mounting holes from the actuator end, the second load beam mounting plate is apertured opposite the first load beam mounting hole and is free of mounting the second load beam at the first mounting hole, and the first and second mounting plates are swaged into engagement with the first and second mounting holes respectively.
In a further embodiment, the invention provides in combination the foregoing actuator and a flexure and slider mounted on each of the load beams in operative association with a disk.
In a still further embodiment, the invention provides the method of carrying first and second load beams on a common actuator in operative association with the disk of a disk drive suspension, including providing separate mounting holes spaced along the longitudinal axis of the actuator, and individually mounting the load beams with separate mounting plates to the actuator at the separate mounting holes for separately demounting one of the load beams without disturbing the other of the load beams.
In another embodiment, the invention provides a disk drive suspension actuator defining a first mounting hole, a mounting plate mounted in the mounting hole and having a portion thereof cantilevered from the actuator, the mounting plate defining in its cantilevered portion an aperture longitudinally spaced from the mounting hole, and a load beam mounted in the cantilevered portion aperture for operative association with a disk at a distance from the actuator greater than the length of the load beam.
In this and like embodiments, typically, each of the actuator and the load beam partially overlap the mounting plate, the mounting plate defines a longitudinal extension of the actuator enabling a relatively too short load beam to be mounted in operative association with the disk in substitution for a relatively longer load beam without otherwise altering the components of the disk drive suspension, the load beam mounted on the mounting plate is torsionally stiffer than a load beam of the same overall length of the mounting plate and the load beam, the mounting plate and the load beam are each swaged into engagement with their mounting holes and aperture respectively, and there is further included a flexure and slider mounted on the load beam in operative association with a disk.
More particularly, the invention comprises in this embodiment a disk drive suspension comprising an actuator defining a mounting hole, a mounting plate mounted in the mounting hole and having a cantilevered portion extending from the actuator, the mounting plate defining an aperture and a load beam, flexure and slider assembly, the assembly load beam being mounted in the aperture for operative association of the slider with a disk at a distance from the actuator greater than the length of the load beam.
In addition, the invention provides a disk drive suspension comprising an assembly of an actuator, a load beam, a flexure and a slider, the slider being adapted to be supported in operative position opposite a disk, the load beam being of insufficient length to support the slider in operative position when mounted on the actuator, and a mounting plate carried by the actuator and carrying the load beam, the mounting plate and load beam together having sufficient length to support the slider in its operative position.
The invention further contemplates provision of the method of supporting on an actuator a load beam flexure and slider assembly in operative association with a disk where the load beam is insufficiently long, including mounting a mounting plate to an actuator in cantilevered relation, and mounting the load beam, flexure and slider assembly to the mounting plate at its cantilevered portion.